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Recently I decided that I needed to change my diet, so that I was eating more beans (or protein) and less pasta. Thus the need for a nicely seasoned bean recipe was born! The full recipe is at the bottom of the post. I really like the combination of spices, but you can obviously alter the amount of each used if you want. Next time I might throw in some fresh onion, garlic, and cilantro as well, but this was work-with-whatever-is-in-the-kitchen style cooking. Excuse the lighting in some of the pictures; I’m still learning how to take nice pictures without natural light or Photoshop (I’m definitely noticing that some of these pictures are a little dark!).

Start by pouring 1 can of black beans (rinsed) and 1 can of water into a pot. Bring to a boil.

Once the beans are boiling, reduce the heat. Mine was set on medium-low. At this point add your spices: 1/2 teaspoon onion salt and oregano, 1 teaspoon cumin, garlic powder, and paprika. Stir. Let simmer for 15 minutes and then remove from heat.

This point is where I had to get creative. 🙂 How was I going to drain the excess water while retaining the flavor of the spices? To solve my problem I covered the surface of a strainer with a layer of paper towels, poured the beans on top of that, and let them drain as much as possible.

I went ahead and moved the beans with a regular spoon over to a bowl because I wanted to keep a little bit of the liquid (who likes dry beans? not me!).

In addition to the beans I cooked up some white rice, so that I could make simple burritos with just rice, beans, and sour cream.

Here’s the inside of my burrito:

My mom told me that beans + corn = a complete protein (and moms are always right 🙂 ), so I boiled some corn for 7 minutes to go along with my burrito. Yum!

Since there is only one of me and lots of beans, I wrapped up three more (medium sized) burritos to freeze for later. I saw this idea over at Shutterbean, and I’ve been waiting to try it out for a while. Her tips are to take off the foil, wrap the burrito in a damp paper towel, and microwave for 3 minutes. I think for these smaller burritos 2 minutes might be okay. I’ll report back once I’ve tried it.

Spiced BlackBeans makes enough beans for 4 medium burritos

Ingredients

1 Can Black Beans

1 Can Water

1/2 tsp onion salt

1/2 tsp oregano

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp paprika

Directions

Bring beans and water to a boil in a small saucepan

Reduce heat to medium-low

Add spices. Stir to combine

Let simmer for 15 minutes

Drain beans using a stainer with a layer of paper towels on top to retain the flavors